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8:41 am

Wed May 28, 2014

What Are The Most Endangered Places In Texas? Preservation Group Adds 12 To Its List

The Brinkley Davis House in Limestone County, east of Waco, is among 12 places on Preservation Texas' Most Endangered Places 2014 list.

Preservation Texas

Five stories that have North Texas talking: what are the most endangered places in Texas?; Tuesday was a big night for the tea party in Texas; meet a woman who knows how to devour a 72-ounce steak; and more.

What are the most endangered places in Texas? Preservation Texas recently released its 2014 list and it features 12 locations. The group says the sites include a conjunto night club in San Antonio; a limestone house near Marble Falls; a historic African-American seminary in Crockett; a Beaumont restaurant that is a "classic example of mid-century commercial architecture;" and a tract of land on the Rio Grande that holds "archaeological and architectural evidence of many layers of history dating back to 1598.” Also on the list: the Brinkley Davis House in Limestone County, about an hour east of Waco. It could be the oldest home in the county, Preservation Texas says. Learn more about the endangered places here. “The 2014 list is a diverse group of sites that reflect the range of preservation issues that historic places throughout the state are confronting,” Evan Thompson, executive director of Preservation Texas, said in a statement. “The sites are cultural, architectural and historic icons that are at imminent risk of disappearing from the landscape. ... We hope to rally Texans statewide to step up and save them by supporting job-creating investments in our state’s at-risk historic places.”

Tuesday was another big night for the tea party in Texas as conservative candidates did well in several GOP runoffs. State Sen. Dan Patrick defeated incumbent David Dewhurst in Tuesday’s lieutenant governor GOP runoff. State Sen. Ken Paxton of McKinney beat State Rep. Dan Branch of Dallas to win the GOP nomination for attorney general. In Tarrant County, in the State Senate District 10 GOP runoff, Konni Burton scored a big win – she’ll face Democrat Libby Willis in November to try to fill Wendy Davis’ seat. John Ratcliffe declared victory Tuesday night after defeating longtime incumbent Ralph Hall, America’s oldest Congress member. “I just got whipped and I got beat,” Hall said. Catch up on the Tuesday election highlights from KERA News.

A competitive eater from Nebraska has devoured a 72-ounce steak at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo to set a new record.The Amarillo Globe-News and the restaurant's Twitter page say Molly Schuyler on Monday downed the 4 1/2-pound slab of beef in 4:58. She apparently wasn't sated so she ate a second one, taking a more pedestrian 9:59 to finish it. The restaurant invites anyone to a free meal if they eat not just the 72-ounce steak, but also a baked potato, shrimp, a salad and bread roll in less than an hour. The previous record was 8:52. In February, Schuyler, a 5-foot-7, 125-pound mother from Bellevue, Nebraska, wolfed down 363 chicken wings in 30 minutes to set a record in Philadelphia. [Associated Press]

In December, at age 81, Courtney Sands of Dallas landed in a hospital after slipping and breaking her wrist and hip. But she was determined to get back to her beloved home. Her daughter, Heather Stephens, a nurse who lives in California, wasn't so sure. Home design and technology have changed dramatically over the last two decades. Someone who's fractured a hip might once have been forced into a nursing home. Now it's possible to “age in place.” Design breakthroughs make that possible. Sands' desire to "fall-proof" her home is the focus of Chapter 4 of The Broken Hip, a two-month KERA News Breakthroughs series that explores the issues surrounding this serious medical issue. Catch up on the series here.

A new artwork in NorthPark Center has people stopping to look and trying to figure out what they’re seeing. The mall is known for the major art collection the owners, the Nasher family, display there. But KERA’s Jerome Weeks reports this new artwork is a bit different: “It’s three water towers. They’re big, wooden barrels up on metal legs. They’re like the ones you see in old movie Westerns, the tanks that provide water for a steam train. And you can still see them on top of older buildings in cities like New York. But walk under these at NorthPark, look up, and it’s a different world. The three towers are an installation called This Land Is Your Land. Its creator is Ivan Navarro, a Chilean artist who lives in Brooklyn. Navarro says the work was inspired by the Woody Guthrie song about wandering America, discovering its natural beauties.” Read more on KERA’s Art&Seek.